In comments at a legislative report-back forum Saturday, State Sen. Dick Saslaw commented that the Trans Urban private sector operators of the new E-ZPass Express Lanes on the Beltway “are getting killed,” taking in only $27,000 a month, one tenth of what they need to show a profit. He noted last weekend’s “ride free” promotion to improve ridership on the fast-lane toll roads reflected the problem.

At the forum held at the Sleepy Hollow School, which included State Del. Kaye Kory and Sen. Dave Marsden, Del. Kory applauded the bipartisan effort that occurred in Richmond this session to give the state its first new transportation funding bill in 27 years, and also allowed for the expansion of Medicaid. Sen. Marsden said he’d “tilted at a lot of windmills” in the just-ended session, including introducing two gun control bills, one to get juveniles out on parole and another to limit what he called animal cruelty in the practice of fox penning. He said there are eight juveniles currently serving life sentences without parole for crimes committed when they were under age 18 that did not involve the loss of life.